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What do YOU think of when you see/hear the word beetle? Do you think eyeeuuuwwwww, "nasty bug" or "stinky bug" or (God forbid )" a cockroach"? Or do you think of "The Mummy" series of movies where the beetles are swarming all over the bad guys. yuck!
Now what comes to mind when you see/hear the word "Scarab" ? All things Egyptian?, King Tut?, Nefertiti? Amun -the sun god? Golden icons? Royalty, mystery, other-worldly? Talismans?
Well friends that's what I prefer to think about when I contemplate the difference
between beetles and scarabs.
As Shakespeare said -"whats in a name ?" A lot , apparently.
Enter the scene - one beautiful , raku colour, glazed ceramic Scarab bead, created by the very talented Sue Kennedy of SueBeads. I was fortunate enough to be gifted with one of these lovelies as part of the monthly challenge with the proviso that I make piece of jewellery and blog about it.
**WARNING** this a really long, wo…

well today is THE day. It's reveal time for the 2017 bead peeps swap n hop event.
Organized by our hostess Linda Anderson of Cherry on Top Design Co. http://fromTheBeadBoard.blogspot.com its a fun way to meet new beady peeps and to challenge ourselves by relying on someone else's bead picks for us.
This is the first time I have participated in this swap .
*warning Long read ahead * just scroll through the pix if you don't want to read it all.

My partner is a polymer clay artist, Nicole Rennell from Massachusetts, USA.
She sent me an amazing example of her latest works -Faux Labradorite, plus an assortment of beady goodies to accent and enhance my design.
just check them out.
and all these other yummy beads.
sea glass in my favourite blue-green and crystals and african glass discs and silver spacers and e-beads galore. *swoon*

Of course when presented with such choices one has to let the ideas percolate for a while.
How long is a while?
Well lets just say I got th…

I'm taking part in BEAD PEEPS 3rd Annual HOP N SWAP hosted by Linda Anderson. This is the first time for me to do this event. As part of the requirements we have been asked to tell a little bit about ourselves, what we do as jewellery artists, our style, our likes and dislikes, our preferred materials to use and what we don't like to use at all. I am sort of retired, (as in not working but not old enough to officially retire.) I have been making jewellery for at least 10 years. I work primarily with semi precious gemstones, glass beads, copper, silver plate or silver-filled wire, leather, chain, linen, silk and other fibres. I don't do bead embroidery but I do use seed beads as spacers or for filling up stringing wire to make it pretty. I also work with metal clays, in past using a friends kiln I made pendants in copper clay, bronze clay and steel clay. Now I limit myself to silver clay as that can be torch fired. The past two years I have started to use recycled or reclaimed…

Yesterday I spent the day at a workshop hosted by a fellow artist and friend, Wendy Southin of Dragonfly Dreamers studio.
We were playing with Gelli Plates and making mono-print artwork.We began by creating standard mono-prints on various paper types.
After a lunch break we got down and dirty with making layers on our base prints. I came away with an incredible assortment of art prints that I can add to in future, (they don't LOOK FINISHED yet). But I did get three that I am very pleased to say are done, that is I don't think they need anything else other than to be framed or mounted.
I don't have titles for these. They haven't divulged what they want to be called yet.
The first one is a yellow-toned study with touches of dark green and metallic copper.

I decided to be a bit brave and work in black white and grey, an odd choice I'm sure the others thought when I started. In the end we were all impressed with how they turned out, esp. once I added a touch of re…

New year, same old intentions.To update my blog more often. Will I be consistent? who knows. but I will try.
For now, here is a photo from one of the shows I did last year.

and a close up of some of the items I sold , the four necklaces on the left hand side are all sold and gone on to new homes. Only one of the bracelets below them is left in stock. the two necklaces on the right are going to be taken apart and remade . they seem a bit bland to me and haven't sold, so it's time to tweak them a bit and see what happens.

"We interrupt our challenge schedule to try something new for the month of August....a headpin challenge. But not just any kind of run of the mill headpin. We're talking fancy schmancy art headpins.
What is an art headpin? Well...it's a headpin that is handcrafted by an artisan, has been manipulated in a manner that is more than just a ball end, and has the potential to be the centerpiece of a creation rather than just playing a supporting roll." (the above statements are courtesy of Art Jewelry Elements blog) Well I checked my stash and rats, I don't own any art headpins. How did that happen? I love art headpins. So I'll just have to make my own. Take some wire -20 gauge; cut two pieces 6 inches long Now I could just make swirly coiled headpins but that's so meh.

Lets try soldering. So I make some bends on one end of each wire to create triangles. Make a bend in the middle of one side to make the long pin part of the headpin. Next-add some solder to fill i…

Over on the Allegory Gallery Facebook page there is a challenge (or several) going on.
One of them is the Luna Moth Challenge . We were required to purchase the kit from the Allegory Gallery website and then had quite a few weeks to create something with those beads.
We had the option of adding from our own stash or not. I chose to NOT add in other bits this time.

I decided I wanted the one -holed focal LUNA MOTH pendant to be a non- pendant so I added another hole opposite the first one, thank goodness for my Dremel Micro. It's become a real workhorse in my studio.

I have not used waxed linen before in my jewellery making, (only for handmade book bindings.)
It was an interesting material to work with. It is self needling cause it's sticky and does fit through quite a few bead holes, even the small e-beads we were given as part of the kit. It does create a less flexible finished piece than is usual with other fibres, but it holds KNOTS really well. Bonus!!!